Julian Jaynes and the Features of Consciousness
Brian J. McVeigh, interviewed by Marcel Kuijsten and Brendan Leahy, in Marcel Kuijsten (ed.), Conversations on Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind (Julian Jaynes Society, 2022).
Summary: Brian J. McVeigh interviewed by Marcel Kuijsten and Brendan Leahy on the first hypothesis of Julian Jaynes’s theory.
Excerpt: Marcel Kuijsten: You knew Julian Jaynes when you were a doctoral student at Princeton University, and have been studying, writing, and speaking about various aspects of his theory for more than 30 years. What in your view is the primary obstacle to people understanding Jaynes’s theory?
Brian J. McVeigh: Well, the first issue is the word “consciousness” itself. It seems to me there is an almost irrational obsession surrounding this term, a sort of fetishism, if you will. In both the academic literature and scientific journalistic writings it appears quite frequently. I say this because it appeals to many who are attracted to the mysterious nature of the mind but perhaps don’t want to do the heavy-lifting of disciplined research. …